


A Visit To Zurich

by loadsoffandoms



Category: Tennis RPF
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Family, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 04:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9803036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loadsoffandoms/pseuds/loadsoffandoms
Summary: Rafa visits Roger in Zurich, set after AO2017.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to @Siaht for the prompt and beta-ing this story!  
> This is my first Fedal fic so forgive me for any mistakes!

As soon as Rafael Nadal stepped foot outside of the airplane, he was already regretting his decision to show up in Zurich. Rafael Nadal did not adjust well to the cold, especially not after growing up in the warm Manacor. However, his love for a certain Switzerland tennis player far exceeded his dislike of the cold, and that’s how Rafa found himself waiting for the cab that was supposed to pick him up.

Rafa had known Roger for over 13 years now. So, he was not surprised when Roger Federer himself came to pick him up from the airport. If anyone knew hospitality, it was probably the brown-haired man standing in front of him. He took in the sight of Roger (or Rogelio, as Rafa preferred to call him) in his well fitted black jeans and a grey sweater, impeccably dressed as he always was. He slowly moved towards Roger, proceeding to hug him as he always did in public and inhaling the scent that was completely Roger, subtle yet strong. 

“Rogelio, is nice to see you. Thank you for inviting me to your home!” he said, stressing on each word just so that the press that had already gathered around could have their front page headlines for the day and would leave them in peace.

“It’s nice to see you too, Rafa, and it’s always a pleasure to have you visit,” Roger returned the favour, as they both headed towards the car that was to take them to Roger’s home. 

The drive to Roger’s house was mostly punctuated with normal conversation, ranging from topics such as the weather to the latest football matches. It was mostly for the benefit of the driver, as they both steered clear of the topics that could possibly end up in the papers if heard by the wrong ears. 

Upon reaching Roger’s house, Rafa fought the urge to run away. It was the first time he was even seeing Roger’s house in Zurich and it was so suave and stylish, so Roger, that Rafa felt slightly out of place in his normal clothing. However, he didn’t have a chance to run away as Roger quickly took his bag from the trunk of the car and headed into the house. 

They were greeted at the door by two of Rafa’s favourite people in the world, Myla and Charlene. The two kids had instantly captured his attention when he saw them in 2009 as mere babies. Myla, always the more adventurous, had no qualms that he was a stranger as she managed to capture one of his fingers and hold onto it for the rest of the night, while Charlene had slowly taken hold of another finger about five minutes after her sister. Even as Mirka was feeding them, they refused to let go, leaving even Mirka confused as she had never seen them behave like that. Their perseverance and determination reminded him of himself (of course, it wasn’t because he felt proud that he was the one who had captured their attention and not Stan, and certainly not because they reminded him of Roger) and from then, Rafael Nadal was a complete slave to Myla and Charlene. In fact, he didn’t even struggle as they caught hold of both his legs and hugged him tight, followed by dragging him into the house, one twin holding each leg and speaking to him together, in a mixture of Spanish and English which even Rafa couldn’t understand but he simply nodded along and smiled as he saw Roger go to another room, presumably to check on Leo and Lenny. 

When both the twins had finally finished saying whatever they had to say to him, Rafa was finally allowed to speak, speak being a subjective term. 

“Girls, I bring gifts for you. You want to see, no?” Rafa said, anticipating the shrieks of excitement following right after and already accustomed to the sound. As if on cue, Roger came out of the room with Leo and Lenny in tow, both the boys looking like they were just awoken from a nap.

“You woke them up?” Rafa asked, not wanting to disturb the boys’ sleep simply because he was there.

“No, they were already up, these two are just silent killers. They never cry when they wake up so it’s a dream come true and a nightmare, because we pretty much never know when they’re awake and when they’re hungry.” Roger said, as his eyes drifted slowly to the packages Rafa was removing from his bag. “Rafa, I told you not to get gifts! You spoil them too much and then, Mirka and I have to hear ‘Oh, Uncle Rafa is so nice, why can’t you be more like him?’ for the whole of next week.”

Even Rafa had to laugh at that, at the same time his heart swelled with pride. He shrugged and said, “Well, I am very nice as I bring them signed copies of the new Illustrated Harry Potter book. You tell me they don’t have them and I remember they like Harry Potter so I bring for them.”

That was all it took for Myla and Charlene to hug Rafa again and start thanking him. Rafa finally managed to reach into his bag and bring out two toys for the boys, some lego-type toy acceptable for 3-year-olds which he’d learnt from Roger earlier that they’d taken a liking to. The two boys started smiling and then giggling as they took the toys from Rafa and within minutes, began playing with them. How they opened the box was a mystery, but somehow they’d managed it and were now blissfully ignoring the other four. Roger and Rafa sighed at them in sync, looked at each other and laughed, locking eyes for way longer than appropriate in front of children.

Roger was the one who broke the stare first, also breaking the silence by asking, “Does anyone want to have dinner?”

After an enthusiastic response from all three of the kids, because Rafa tended to behave like a kid whenever he was around Roger’s kids, Roger prepared to set up for dinner, sneaking glances at the three who were now discussing Harry Potter with a lot of enthusiasm.

“Oh, Uncle Rafa, look at Hermione! Ella parece perfecta!” Charlene said, the more comfortable with Spanish of the two sisters, pointing at the illustration of Hermione.

"No es más perfecto que mis dos chicas. Not more than you two,” Rafa said, adoration clear in his eyes as it always was around these two.

“Aw, Uncle Rafa, why don’t you visit us more often? We miss you!” Myla said, looking up at him with those bright, innocent eyes.

“I promise I come more to visit you, you also come to Spain, no?” Rafa replied, slightly ruffling Myla’s hair.

As Myla fixed her hair while staring at Rafa for messing it up, Roger’s voice echoed from behind them, “Your Uncle Rafa doesn’t like coming here. I invited him to Switzerland when I went to his Academy and he said he’d rather live in Spain,” he teased as Rafa glared up at him.

“You bring them to Spain, no? There we have beaches, kids will also have fun. They never visit Manacor,” Rafa said, cocking his eyebrow at Roger, knowing he won this round, and his victory was only confirmed for him when Myla and Charlene both began asking Roger to take them to Manacor so that they could live at Uncle Rafa’s house. 

The conversation, however, was effectively shut down when dinner was laid out and Roger hurriedly left to call Leo and Lenny as if there was no one else to do so. The topics during dinner were also as far from dinner as it could get as Roger and Rafa discussed the latest tennis news with the kids along with cartoons, books and toys that they’d recently heard about (or rather, read about before showing up in Rafa’s case) and then, all the kids were sent to bed as it was already late, finally leaving some alone time for Rafa and Roger.

They both settled on the couch in the living room, a rug comfortably wrapped around both of them as they watched an old tennis match of theirs. They were rather cliché in that sense as they usually ended up watching their own matches over anything else on TV. However, as they were so accustomed to their own match, they were rarely able to concentrate on it and ended up talking through it anyway.

“You know, Myla’s right, why don’t you come here more often? You could even live in Switzerland, or at least visit more than once a year.”

“Is too cold here, and what do I say to press? I live here because Rogelio ask me to?” Rafa asked, snuggling closer to Roger as he did so.

“That would certainly help things, yes. The girls already love you and the boys are warming up to you, Mirka doesn’t hate you either. Is it really only the cold and the press that are the only things keeping you away?”

“Sí Rogelio, I love the kids and you but I worry about press. What if they find out and say bad things about kids and Mirka? You are still famous, Rogelio, everyone will talk about you and kids are too young to understand,” Rafa explained, hoping this would convince Roger for the hundredth time that he was only doing this for them, “and you come to Manacor once kids are older, the cold is only good for hugging.”

Roger cracked a smile at this as they both held each other close and fell asleep in each other’s arms, with the TV announcing Rafael Nadal as the winner of the Australian Open, the place where it all truly began.


End file.
